Genesis 2 is not a second, different creation story. It is a close-up of the sixth day. Chapter 1 shows God as the mighty Creator of the universe; chapter 2 shows Him as the personal LORD God who stoops down to form one man with His own hands. Notice the new name: in chapter 1 He is called God, and from Genesis 2:4 He is called “the LORD God.” LORD in capital letters stands for His covenant name — the God who draws near and keeps relationship with His people.
“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” The word formed is the word for a potter shaping clay. We are made of the dust of the ground, so we are humble and dependent. Yet we carry the breath of God, so we are precious. No animal received the breath of life in this personal way.
God plants a garden eastward in Eden and puts the man there “to tend and keep it.” Work came before the fall. Work is not a punishment; it is a calling to care for what belongs to God. In the middle of the garden stand the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God gives abundant freedom — “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat” — and only one boundary. The command was a gift that gave Adam the opportunity to love God by trusting Him.
Then for the first time God says something is not good: “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” God brings the animals to Adam to name, and Adam discovers that none of them is like him. So the LORD God causes a deep sleep to fall on Adam, takes one of his ribs, and builds a woman. Adam's response is the first poem in the Bible: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.”
Genesis 2:24 gives God's pattern for marriage: a man leaves his father and mother, is joined to his wife, and they become one flesh. Jesus quoted this verse in Matthew 19 and added, “Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” The chapter ends with innocence: “they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” There was nothing to hide from God or from each other.